Accused Pottstown killer admits to previous shooting in borough
NORRISTOWN — A Pottstown man awaiting trial for allegedly fatally shooting another man in the borough in May 2022 has admitted to a previous shooting and was sentenced to a stint in prison.
Tyshaun Lorenzo Harvey, 22, who listed addresses in the 300 and 400 blocks of Lincoln Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 18 to 36 months in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and recklessly endangering another person in connection with a March 29, 2021, shooting in the 200 block of North Charlotte Street.
Judge Thomas P. Rogers, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Harvey to complete four years’ probation, consecutive to parole, meaning Harvey faces seven years of court supervision for that crime.
Harvey’s legal troubles have not ended.
Harvey still faces an Oct. 16 trial on charges of first- and third-degree murder, person not to possess a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license and possession of an instrument of crime in connection with the alleged May 29, 2022, gunshot slaying of Nahmer Baird, 22, at Locust Alley and West Street in Pottstown.
In a criminal complaint, authorities indicated that at the time of the alleged May 29 fatal shooting, Harvey was free after posting 10-percent of $100,000 cash bail pending trial for the March 29, 2021, shooting.
An investigation of the March 29 incident began about 7 p.m. when Pottstown police responded to the 200 block of North Charlotte Street for a report of shots fired. Callers to 911 reported hearing between four and 10 gunshots with subjects running from the area, according to a criminal complaint filed by then Pottstown Detective Heather Long, who is now a county detective.
Investigators found three fired cartridge casings in a parking lot on North Charlotte Street and another three fired cartridge casings on Beech Street just east of Locust Alley.
During the investigation, detectives obtained video surveillance footage from cameras in the area and determined the occupants of a Dodge Charger, including Harvey, engaged in an altercation with four subjects walking eastbound on North Charlotte Street during which gunshots were exchanged, according to the criminal complaint.
Detectives alleged video surveillance footage depicted Harvey, who was a rear seat passenger in the Dodge Charger, exit the vehicle “holding a handgun with an extended magazine.”
“This male fired numerous shots toward the group that is still running eastbound on Beech Street,” Long wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Police said they found Harvey’s wallet with identifying information inside the Dodge Charger.
While Harvey admitted to his role in the March 2021 incident, he has pleaded not guilty to homicide-related charges in connection with the May 2022 gunshot slaying of Baird.
If Harvey is convicted of first-degree murder he faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20-to-40-years in prison.
Harvey also faces a charge of attempted murder for allegedly shooting at a male passenger who had been in Baird’s vehicle at the time of the incident and who was uninjured.
Assistant District Attorney Samantha Cauffman is handling the homicide case with co-prosecutor Robert Joseph Waeltz Jr.
Defense lawyer Jack MacMahon represents Harvey in the homicide case.
The homicide investigation began about 8:08 p.m. May 29, 2022, when Pottstown police responded to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of West Street. Arriving officers found Baird, who listed addresses in Pottstown and Norristown, unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a white Nissan Sentra, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to a criminal complaint filed by Long and Pottstown Detective Michael Damiano.
Baird was transported by ambulance to Pottstown Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:44 p.m. from a gunshot wound to the torso.
Investigators determined Baird was shot at Locust Alley and West Street, where detectives recovered numerous fired cartridge casings. After the shooting, Baird’s vehicle traveled eastbound on West Street for approximately two blocks before crashing head-on into a Dodge pickup truck, injuring an adult male driver. That driver of the pickup truck was transported to Reading Hospital for emergency treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, according to authorities.
Witnesses in the area reported hearing what sounded like two different types of guns firing multiple gunshots, according to court papers.
“Baird’s Nissan Sentra had several bullet strikes to the driver’s side of the vehicle,” Long and Damiano wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Detectives obtained video surveillance footage from a camera at a private residence near Locust Alley and West Street which captured a portion of the alleged shooting. Baird’s white Nissan was observed traveling north in Locust Alley and stopping at the alley’s intersection with West Street, according to court papers.
“Baird’s Nissan is stationary for a few seconds and then multiple gunshots are heard,” detectives alleged, adding a male passenger exited from the front passenger seat of Baird’s vehicle and crouched down on Locust Alley as the shots rang out.
Seconds later, a black Chrysler 300 traveling east on West Street passed Locust Alley and a single gunshot could be heard. Baird’s Nissan then turned right onto West Street and traveled eastbound and later crashed, detectives said.
“Based on the ballistic evidence located at the scene of the shooting and the surveillance video recovered, it appears that there was an exchange of gunfire between occupants of the black Chrysler 300 and the occupants of the white Nissan Sentra,” Long and Damiano alleged.
Detectives determined the Chrysler 300 was owned by Harvey and that vehicle was found on May 30 near Harvey’s Lincoln Avenue residence and it had a bullet strike to the front windshield area, according to court documents.
The investigation determined that the Chrysler 300 operated by Harvey was following the white Nissan Sentra operated by Baird throughout the streets of Pottstown for 40 minutes before there was an exchange of gunfire between the vehicles’ occupants at Locust Alley and West Street, according to court papers.
Harvey was taken into custody on Aug. 9, 2022, in Susanville, Calif.
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